


Drawing Myself

by xingus



Category: Hiveswap, Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Humanstuck, POV Alternating, POV Second Person, Slow Burn, Useless Lesbians, daraya/tyzias wholesome friendship time bayby, gender exploration :), listen...this is extremely self indulgent!! i am projecting!!!, mostly jade/teal characters cause i care about them so much!!!!!!, no one is straight, please help them they r dumb, smoking n drinking, stelsa is fuckin!!! buff!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28159233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xingus/pseuds/xingus
Summary: 'Your name is Tyzias Entykk and today you have to wake up stupid early so that your dumb friend can come round to help move all your stuff out for university. You don't know why he couldn’t have waited til the afternoon- you just chalked it up to him doing it out of spite for all the shit you’ve done to him over the years. Which is fair, you guess, but that doesn’t mean he could’ve waited to cash it in any other day but today.'Au where Tyzias is a tired uni student who moves into a flat with several other gays and falls with love with a cute business student.
Relationships: Tyzias Entykk/Stelsa Sezyat
Comments: 16
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello !!! this is just me projecting onto characters i like cause quarantine is making me go apeshit!!!! 
> 
> the title is based off the song drawing myself by early eyes <3

The sun had barely come up over the horizon when your phone started buzzing. At first it was just a few vibrations against the wooden surface of your bedside table but it steadily grew into a loud drone that made you sit up almost immediately, rubbing sleep from your eyes as you used your hand to find the device to turn off the blaring noise. You groaned as you turned on your phone, the bright screen hitting your tired eyes and making them sting, and only after fumbling around with the settings did you turn off your alarm. Sitting back in bed, you glare at the wall, mind still foggy with sleep, threatening to pull you back under if you don’t do anything soon. So you get up. Reluctantly.

Your name is Tyzias Entykk and today you have to wake up stupid early so that your dumb friend can come round to help move all your stuff out for university. You don't know why he couldn’t have waited til the afternoon- you just chalked it up to him doing it out of spite for all the shit you’ve done to him over the years. Which is fair, you guess, but that doesn’t mean he could’ve waited to cash it in any other day but today. You let out another long sigh before stretching and grabbing any random assortment of clothes off the pile in your floor- a flannel and a pair of dickies with an unidentifiable stain on them are grasped in your hand. You shuffle into the bathroom to take a quick shower, hoping it’ll wake you up. 

The steady rumble of the kettle boiling and the tapping of your nails against your phone screen as you scroll your feed are the only sounds in the otherwise empty house. You are home alone, as you are most days but you see it as a good thing today. Your friend has a habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time and not many people can tolerate him because of it. Though, you find it hard to tolerate him and you consider him a friend if nothing else. The button on the kettle pops up and you pour the water into your favourite mug until it’s full. You stir the shitty instant coffee and frown as you watch several grains float to the top of your mug. You decide to scoop them out with your teaspoon and drink it anyways. The black coffee tastes bitter on your tongue and you make a face as you force it down. You make a mental note to invest in some nice coffee and then vaguely wonder if your flat kitchen will have a kettle. 

Your friend was never one for quiet introductions, as is shown in the way he knocks on your door. The sudden sound after a morning of quiet startles you and you almost spill your coffee, only managing to pull the mug up to your lips before the liquid tipped over the edge. You take a long sip. This is going to be a long day, you think bitterly as you scramble to grab your keys as another knock echoes through the hallway. 

“I’m coming” you shout as he knocks a third time. You set down your coffee and swear as you fumble to find the correct key. Much to your friends dismay, you take your time unlocking the door, and when the lock clicks open he seems to know and pulls the door open before you can do it yourself. 

In front of you stands Tagora fucking Gorjek and wow he looks pissed off at you! You stand aside to let him in before closing the door and heading back towards the kitchen to finish your shitty coffee. He follows you and leans against the counter as you take a sip and offer him a drink. 

“Waters fine, thanks” is all he says. He rubs his eyes and accepts the water with a nod. He’s wearing his usual getup, you notice, the dark teal jumper with the button up underneath and a pair of faded jeans. His hair is up in a messy bun.

“Was the trip here okay?” You find yourself asking. 

“I’ve had worse” his voice sounds tired. You understand, you’re tired too. “Cars ready to pack all your shit. We should hurry up if we want to get there by mid afternoon”. 

You hum in agreement and head into the living room where you had dumped all your packet stuff the day before. It wasn’t much, a few boxes of kitchen supplies, some electronics and several boxes of books made up the majority of it. Tagora seemed to be inspecting them, sharp eyes scanning the labels on the boxes before he spun around and headed for the door. Propping it open, he headed back towards his car and unlocked it. He looked back expectantly at you as you stood in the hallway of your house and watched him. You blinked at each other. 

“Aren’t you going to help me move the boxes?” you asked politely. You pulled on your boots and a jacket as he replied. 

“I opened the door for you” he replied innocently, his arms folded behind his back “it costs extra for me to help move them into my car- I’m already giving you this ride for free. Don’t push your luck, Entykk”.

You call him a rude name. He calls you one back. You flip him off and he grins. The boxes aren’t that heavy and it doesn’t take much out of you to transport them into the car. With every box safely packed, Tagora tells you that the price of his generosity goes down ever so slightly. You tell him you though he just said the ride was free. He says he changed his mind. You almost drop a box on his foot. 

One fully packed car and him asking if ‘you’ve really got everything? I’m not coming back for anything’ later and you find yourself sliding into the passenger side. He starts the car and it sputters into life as you pull the seat belt over your chest. Tagora pulls out of your driveway and onto the road. It’s pretty much empty aside from a few cars heading off to work, and you mostly have the road to yourselves. You plug your phone into the aux cord and Tagora groans. 

“Just don’t play any of your shitty lesbian music” his words make you laugh and you put on Girl in Red out of pure spite. Girls comes on first and can hear his soul leave his body as he recognises the melody. It only fuels your spite and you decide to queue a few more songs before switching back to your usual playlist. 

“You’re so fucking lucky I’m driving, Entykk or I would’ve pushed you out of this car an hour ago”. You laugh and tell him to go ahead. He calls you an asshole. 

Halfway through the drive you stop at a small roadside cafe and decide to sit in. You order a black coffee and a sandwich and Tagora gets a latte and a pastry. The cafe is sort of rundown with wooden decor that's browned with age and windows with mould growing around the edges. You’re pretty sure that's a health violation you think to yourself as you consume your second, and definitely not your last coffee of the day. You decide not to think about what could be in the food- the sandwich is good enough to get you through the rest of the afternoon and you're pretty sure the food cases at the front were a lot more modern than the rest of the place. You decide to leave a small tip as you exit, Tagora scoffs at you as you drop a few coins and a note on the table. The lady at the counter smiles at you as you leave. 

The afternoon sun has warmed the car you notice as you take your place on the passenger side once again. You slip off your jacket and bundle it together in your lap before putting your seatbelt on. Tagora starts off down the road and you let him use the aux cord to play his music this time. You figure it’ll get him to shut his mouth for a bit so you don’t complain. The warmth of the sun reminds you of the faint ache of tiredness in your eyes and you find yourself drifting in and out of sleep for a bit, listening as Tagora switches his music out for the soundtrack of some dumb game you’ve never heard of. It calms you though and you lean against the window and close your eyes. 

-

You’re jolted back into reality by the car stopping suddenly and violently. “What the fuck” you yell as you try to still your thumping heart. Your head is still fuzzy with sleep and the sun is hidden behind several tall concrete buildings. You feel cold. 

“We’re here” he replied simply, shutting the car off and stepping out of his side. 

Groggy, you do the same and the world spins a little when your feet hit the cobblestone path. Your vision swims a little and goes fuzzy around the edges. Groaning, you lean on the car for support and watch Tagora open up the boot to grab a few of his own bags and a suitcase as you wait for your vision to go back to normal. He waits for you to do the same and you pick up a box and your backpack and follow him down the path. The building in front of you is tall and gray and bland and you can’t wait to live in it for the next year. You notice some people have already moved in, there are decorations in some of the kitchen windows as well as a few plants in the student rooms. You see the shape of a person peering down at you as they pass the window. Tagora clears his throat and your gaze snaps to his. He beckons you into the building and you blindly follow. 

“Shit wait” you say and he stops and turns around, leaning on the open door and adjusting his grip on his bags. “I don’t have my key yet”. 

He frowns for a second and you figure he’s about to complain when he sets his bags down and shoves his hand deep into the pocket of his jeans. He pulls out a key and then goes back to what he was doing before. “Don’t worry about it for now, I’ve got mine so we can get in and put your stuff down so I don’t have to keep my car unlocked”. 

You nod and follow him inside. You guess you got lucky scoring him as a flatmate even if he is a pain in the ass sometimes. You're led through a carpeted corridor and to a door just left of the entrance. The door has been propped open by a doorstop and Tagora offhandedly mentions that some other people in their flat must be moving in as well and you feel your get twist with anxiety at the thought of meeting them. Some other students pass behind you, and you hear them complaining as they open another door to the stairway, and their sad little steps echo off into the distance. You’re grateful you got a first floor flat, you’re not sure your legs could handle walking up and down stairs all afternoon. Tagora leads you into your new kitchen and waits for you to set down your box. 

The kitchen is pretty standard considering you’re going to be sharing it with several strangers for a year. It has the usual oven and microwave setup with two large fridges and some cupboards. There’s a large window that stretches around the far wall of the kitchen with a table and some chairs and a few bottles of alcohol already set up on the window sill. You only have a few seconds to wonder who put them there when someone else walks in and stops dead in their tracks when they see you. 

“Oh, um. Hi” you stutter. 

The person raises an eyebrow and you suddenly register the Arctic Monkeys blasting down the corridor from one of the rooms. You’re almost certain it’s coming from the strangers room. She’s wearing a studded choker and a white shirt with sleeves you’re sure she cut off herself and tattoos snaking around both her arms. You stare at her arms for a little too long before looking back up to her face and oh she’s pretty but in the kind of way where you’re not sure whether she’s going to beat you up or not. Black lipstick was something you didn’t see often but oh god did it suit her.

“You gonna answer me or keep starin’?” her voice makes you snap back into reality and you blink a few times, cheeks growing hot. You catch Tagora smirking at you from the corner of your eye. Fuck, you forgot he was there. 

“Uh, what did you say, sorry?” you set your box down and busy yourself with the contents inside, not trusting yourself to look back at the girl.

“I was asking what you’re studying” her tone was somewhat friendlier now but still held an air of uncertainty. You felt like she was just asking to be polite- they were going to be co-existing for the next year after all. 

“Law” you reply, nodding over to Tagora, who was still loitering about with his bag “we both are”. Hands deep in your kitchenware box, you pull out a fistful of cutlery. “Where do these go?”

“In there” the girl points to the draw above the sink, a tiny little thing with a handle that looked like it would fall off if you did so much as touch it. You go over with your box in hand and pull lightly on the handle. The draw slides open for longer than you thought it would and the cutlery already placed inside crash together. You see the girl wince a little at the noise. Time for damage control, you think.

“I like your music” you comment as you place your things in the draw so that it didn’t touch the others. “Is this from their new album? I haven’t listened to much of it”. At that you see the girl perk up a little, her lips drawn up almost into a smile. 

“Yeah this is The Ultracheese” she stepped forward, holding out her hand to you. You smiled and took her hand, it was small but firm in your own. You notice she painted her nails green. It suits her. “I’m Daraya by the way. I’m on the illustration course”.

“Tyzias” you nod, happy to finally know her name. You think it suits her. “I didn’t know they did any art courses here”. Collapsing your empty box, you walk back outside to Tagoras car. To your surprise, Daraya follows you, and Tagora tags along behind. Probably to make sure you’re not damaging his car or stealing his shit. 

“Of course you didn't, you're literally taking law”. She stands and watches as you grab another box and then steps forward to help. You accept and hand her some of your stuff. “So, is your little boyfriend gonna help us or is he just gonna stand there?” she asks as the pair of you are walking back to put away more stuff. 

Your face goes a little red. “Tagora isn’t my boyfriend, I just leeched a ride off him cause I don’t have my licence” you hear him scoff behind you. “And no he wont help unless he gets something back in return”. 

“He sounds like an asshole” she guides you over to where you can store your pans. Her boots creak as she bends down and you notice she’s wearing platforms. 

“I can hear you” he growls at Daraya, eyes narrowed. Daraya stares evenly back at him. This was a fight he couldn’t win, you knew that for sure. “Whatever, we should go get your key before the offices close otherwise you’ll be sleeping in the kitchen”.

“Oh yeah okay” you collapse the boxes and leave them in a pile beside the kitchen door to pick up later. After moving in your bags and leaving them in the hallway for Daraya to look over for you while you’re gone, you let Tagora lead the way. 

You pass a few small cafes on your way there and you make sure to make a mental note of their names. They look like they’d be a cosy place to study and you’re sure that the coffee will be decent enough. You watch your reflection in the windows as you pass by. You look tired. Maybe you should have a nap when you get back. Or maybe you’ll stop by the student store on the way back for an energy drink or two. Probably the latter. 

“So that girl, huh” Tagora has a smirk on his face and you immediately know where this is going. You hate when he does this to you. 

“Yeah, she seems nice doesn’t she” you find your hands picking at the lint in your pockets.

“Seems like your type” he says offhandedly and you resist the urge to smack him in the back of his head. 

“Shut up before I make you”. 

He throws back his head and laughs, hands up in defence, but a smug grin on his face “It’s not my fault you get flustered over every not-straight looking girl”. You reply that he’s lucky you don’t know the way to the offices by yourself. 

He brings you to a small building painted beige with sliding glass doors and carpeted floors that have been stained with muddy footprints of students coming and going. A woman sits at the desk, head down on her phone but she looks up when she sees you enter and smiles. Her presence could be described as somewhat motherly and you feel a sense of comfort as you make your way to the desk and give her your name and flat number. She tells you to wait a sec and walks into another room. You see her scanning a wall you can’t see from the angle you’re stood at, finger hovering over her lips in thought. Then she smiles again and takes out a key that you guess is yours and comes back to the desk. Her chair spins a little as she sits down and pushes the key over the smooth wooden surface to you. You take it with a polite thank you and exit the building into the gaze of a waiting Tagora. The walk back seemed more familiar now that you’d done it twice and when you get back to your flat, you can finally open the door to your room.

It’s small but that’s what you expected. Just a bed, a desk and a chair to your name as well as some shelf spaces and places you can hang clothes from. You have a small en suite bathroom at the back of the room though you’re not sure if it’s just a toilet or if it comes with a shower as well. You know you’re paying extra for this luxury and don’t mind too much if the showers are communal since you usually only shower during the night anyways. You move your bags into the room, say goodbye to Tagora, and sit down on your bed with a huff. It’s been a long day, your legs feel like putty and your head is swimming with tiredness. But before you can rest you have to make your bed. The mattress given to you is sort of stiff but you’re a heavy sleeper on the rare occasion that you do decide to close your eyes so you begin assembling your duvet and pillows. It’s a pain in the ass to do it yourself but you have mastered the technique and you feel a gleam of pride when you look down at your teal and grey sheets which look as cosy as ever. You put the rest of your bags on your desk and sling whatever bathroom stuff you have through the door to set up later. Then you fall into your bed and seemingly black out as soon as your head hits the pillow.

-

When you wake up it’s dark and you can hear voices and footsteps outside your door. You sit up, groggy and fumble around the bed for your phone, finding it sitting on the floor, still in relatively good shape. You’re still not entirely sure where you are in your sleepy state so you stand up in an attempt to figure it out. You stumble to the window and look outside. Faint music can be heard overhead, nothing you can recognise with it muffled by your closed window but it sounded like pop music. You see a few groups of people hanging around outside the building opposite yours, drinking beer and chatting . One guy laughs and almost drops the cigarette he was trying to balance in his mouth. You watch him light it and take in a long breath. Smoke swirls around his head as he breathes out. 

You take your gaze away from the window to turn on the light. At first it startles you and you have to blink and rub your eyes for your vision to stop being so fuzzy. The bags you threw onto your desk stare at you and you sigh as you start to dig through them. One produces your laptop and you set it on the desk and turn it on. The fan whirls to life and you unpack some of your books as you wait for it to turn on.

The knock on the door makes you jump and almost drop the book you were holding up to stash on one of your shelves. You manage to catch it before messing around with the lock on your door. You don’t need a key to unlock it front the inside, you find out. You’re greeted by Daraya and you have to take a couple of seconds before you recognise her face. 

“Oh hey” you mumble through a yawn. You rub at your eyes again and she raises an eyebrow. “What’s up?”

“Were you sleeping?” she asks, there’s humor in her tone and you reply with a sleepy yes.

“I think I passed out as soon as I got the key to my room” Daraya crosses her arms over her chest and you notice she’s wearing spiked bracelets that go with her choker. “Did you need me for anything?”

“I was just wondering if you wanna hang out with us in the kitchen is all” she eyes you up and down and you feel self conscious of your horrible bedhead and creased clothes. “But if you wanna sleep that’s cool too”. 

“I just woke up actually” you try to flatten down your hair with the sleeve of your shirt. “Give me a second and I’ll be there”. 

She nods and heads back to the kitchen. When she opens the door you can hear laughter exploding from where you guess is the seating area of the kitchen and the sound of bottle caps falling into the table. You shut the door and decide to change into a hoodie. It’s a lot colder now that it’s dark and you aren’t sure how to use the heater in your room yet. You slip on your shoes and make your way into the kitchen and at once the chatter stops. You can feel several pairs of eyes land on you and you do your best not to panic. 

“Uh. Hey guys” you spot Tagora in the corner, legs up on the chair with a bottle of cider in his hand. He takes a swig and ushers you over. You sit between him and Daraya. 

There’s someone else in the kitchen now too. He’s tall, taller than anyone else in the flat with short wavy hair and a button up tucked into smart trousers. He wears a face of light makeup and his nails are painted red and slightly chipped. When he sees you he reaches into a box and pulls you out a cider. You take it and grab the bottle opener from the table. It takes you a second to get the lid off and when you do it bounces off the top of the bottle and onto the table. 

“This is Lanque” Daraya introduces the stranger, who raises his hand in greeting but doesn’t say much else. He looks intimidating- sort of like he could beat you up. You know you’re not into guys but damn if you don’t think he’s pretty.

You take a sip of the cider and nod. It’s the fruity kind, and you’re glad because apple cider tastes like piss and you’re sick of it. You tell Lanque your name and thank him for the cider but he’s on his phone and only makes a small noise that indicates he was listening. 

“Is this everyone then?” you instead ask Daraya. 

“I don’t think so,” she replies, “normally you get about six to eight people in a flat so I assume that the rest of em will be coming the next few days”.

“That makes sense” another swig of cider. God, you hate drinking out of bottles but you knew that Tagora would bully you if you tried to pour what was left into a glass. “I hope the rest of them are as chill as you guys”. 

“Hell yeah, I brought my amp with me so we can have flat parties” Daraya sounded excited as she went on “don’t want no squares living in my flat no thank you”. 

You weren’t really one for parties but you found yourself agreeing, her excitement contagious. Even the aloof Lanque looked up from his drink to ask a few questions about the amp. You sat back on your chair, room temperature cider in one hand, and watched the others talk for a while. You felt peaceful in their presence, and laughed with them as they gave Tagora shit for saying something stupid. He scowled and asked for another cider, but ended up finding himself the center of attention when he offhandedly mentioned that he owned ferrets. You watched in amusement as the others leant forward to hear him talk about his pets. You’d heard it all before of course, he’d shown you them on many a late night discord call, and you felt a surge of pride when he got out his phone to show the two strangers them too. 

“I used to have rats,” Daraya commented as he flipped through his prized ferret photo album. “But I had to give em away when I moved out”. She showed you a blurry photo of two rats huddled together in a cage. The flash made their eyes glow bright red and you snorted at the cursed image. “They’re in a good place, though. I gave em to my buddy Elwurd. She’s a rat queen”. You figured someone with a name like that had to be. “She has a room dedicated to her rats, man. They’re gonna be so fuckin’ spoiled”.

The four of you ended up talking the night away, and once the ciders had gone, you talked some more. None of you seemed tired from the long day of unpacking but you knew that you were instead riding the high of a new friendship. You knew that a week from now uni would begin, you’d have a full flat of people to talk to and maybe you would have some more friends too. Maybe this was the push you really needed to expand your horizons, you think as you gaze over at Tagora, who was debating something with Lanque as Daraya watched, cider replaced with a steaming mug of green tea. A good choice. You make a mental note to go out tomorrow to see if you can find some good coffee. Maybe one of the coffee shops has some beans for sale. 

You blink and it’s suddenly 5:45am and maybe now your flatmates are looking a little sleepy. Maybe they’re talking with a little less enthusiasm, and slumping forward. Their grips on their drinks becoming more slack. But you? You feel wide awake. You watch as one by one, they excuse themselves back to their rooms, wish everyone else a good night- or morning you suppose? You sit in the kitchen alone and scroll thoughtfully through your feed. You know you won’t be able to sleep before the sun comes back up so you decide to grab one of the noodle packets from your room and make yourself a bowl. The kettle looks old and makes a weird wheezing sound when you turn it on but you shrug it off and hope you don’t end up with a bowl full of noodles with limescale seasoning. Maybe you should give it a clean before you use it next. You don’t want to get slowly poisoned by the kitchen equipment you know you’ll be using the most for the next year. 

Your noodles are pretty good for cheap store bought shit you stockpiled into your bag the day before. Too busy wrapping them up in your fork, you don’t hear the main flat door quietly open, then click up again. The only thing that alerts you is the faint rustle of bags and the sound of a kay moving along a keyring. You sit up and stare at the door, expecting one of your sleepy flatmates to come in, saying they’ve forgotten something but instead you’re greeted by a new face. A very very pretty face. Shit. Is your face red right now cause it sure fucking feels that way! The stranger stands at the door, clearly surprised to see someone in the kitchen at this time of day. 

“H-hi?” it comes out more like a question and you internally cinge. Your mouth is half full of noodles and you were caught in the middle of bringing another forkful up to your mouth. The two of you stare at each other for a few more seconds. Your face is so red. 

“Sorry I-I didn’t think anyone would be in here?” she stutters, and you note that her voice is soft, trying to be quiet. She looks embarrassed and you guess you would be too if you were a stranger walking in on you doing something bullshit at almost 6 in the morning. 

“I’m having breakfast,” you say stupidly. The stranger snorts. You find it endearing and you find yourself staring at her face again. She has dimples, you notice, as she smiles. 

“I was trying to come in quietly because I thought everyone would be asleep” she confessed, wiping away a stray hair from her eyes. “My train was delayed so I had to hitch a ride off a friend. I was meant to arrive here 8 hours ago”.

“That sounds horrible” you say through another mouthful of noodles. You never learn. “At least you’re here though. What room are you in?”

She pulls her phone out from her jacket and rapidly taps on the screen with her pink nails. You get another look at her and realise she’s carrying 3 bags and a suitcase. You stand up, a little too quickly and your vision goes blurry. 

“Room C I think it says on the email” she scrolls down a little “ah-yes that’s right! Oh a-are you alright, dear?” she watches you falter a little bit and you wish you could see her but your vision is taking its sweet time coming back. 

“I’m alright. Just stood up too fast” you mumble and she makes a noise of worry that makes your heart flutter in your chest. Shit. You grab your empty noodle bowl and drop it in the sink. “Do you need help with your bags?”

“Oh that’d be great if you could” she sighed, clearly tired from her long and stressful day. “I haven’t been able to get my room key, though. The student support office opens at 7”.

“Ah shit” you glance at the time. Just turned 6. You swallow up your nerves and wish that you felt less sweaty as you asked, a little timidly “do you wanna stay here until you can get your key?”

The stranger's face lights up and you feel like you’re about to collapse with how warm your face feels. She drops her bags by the door and sits by the window. You realise you’re still standing. 

“Um..do you want some tea? The kettles a little grimy but I just had some noodles so it’s not gonna kill you”. 

“Sure” she responds politely.

“Is green okay? It’s all we have at the moment”. 

She nods and you set about grabbing a mug to make the perfect cup of tea for this pretty stranger. 

“So how many people are here so far?” she asks as you absently stir the tea bag around the mug. You look over and realise she’s staring at you now. You look away before you do something stupid. 

“Five of us so far. Including you” you count on your fingers as you throw the tea bag into the trash and set the steaming mug in front of the stranger.

“Oh so I haven’t missed much then!” she takes a sip and makes a noise that probably means the drink you made is edible. You sit back down and stare out the window. The sky was a pale blue but you could smell the beginnings of rain from open windows. You watch a student hurry past the get inside before the rain picked up. They glanced over and you then snapped their gaze back to their destination.

“I’m Tyzias by the way” you figure you should probably introduce yourself. After all, you’re going to be sitting in this kitchen together for a while. “I’m staying in room B”. 

“Stelsa” and finally, you had a name to attach to that beautiful face. You saw her smile again and you couldn’t help but smile back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slightly shorter chapter cause i wanted to post this before i passed out for like 12 hours straight lmao B-) hope u likey

The train station was freezing cold and you found yourself wrapping your jacket tighter around your shivering body. The bags you had packed a day before you left stood to your left, propped up against your bouncing leg as you sat stiffly on the freezing metal bench on the platform. A bag was on your shoulder with a hand instinctively wrapped around the strap. A wire protruded out from the top; your earbuds tangled around the collar of your jacket and blasting Saint Motel into your ears. Music helped calm your nerves. 

It was 7am and you were tired and so,so cold you could barely feel your face but damn if you were gonna miss this train. The price of the ticket itself had made you gasp in surprise when you had first saw it and you remembered that you had to close your eyes when tapping the purchase button on your app. Now your phone sat comfortably in your bag, propped up against a spare hoodie and some books with the app already opened. 

Your name is Stelsa Sezyat and you were always prepared, no matter what. Even if it meant sitting in the cold for the next half an hour to wait for a train on an empty platform early in the morning. You reached down into one of the bags by your feet and picked up your thermos, twisting the cap off and taking a swig of tea in an attempt to wake yourself up a little better. Sure, you were used to waking up early for your morning run, but stress had left you unable to sleep for several hours after you had turned off all your electronics and gone to bed. 

The current song playing in your ears faded away and was immediately replaced with another one. The upbeat music left you bouncing your leg along with the rhythm and you found yourself zoning out a little as you warmed your hands on your thermos. 

30 minutes passed like nothing and you adjusted your glasses and leant forward to look down the track. Still nothing. By now several people had begun to appear on the platform a little ways from you. They all looked just as confused when another 10 minutes passed and nothing had happened. Just the same cold air blowing your bangs into your eyes and the shiver that had started to make its way into your clothes. You decide to wait it out a little longer. 

By the time your playlist had finished, you thought you’d be walking up to your flat, ready to make some new friends and pack away your stuff. But no, your body felt stiff against the bench you had been sitting on for what felt like forever, and the growing anxiety became almost overwhelming. You reached into your bag to get your phone out, one earphone falling out as you adjusted the wire so it wouldn’t get tangled on anything and unlocked your device. You gazed over the tracks again, shivering and annoyed that you had waited for so long even after everyone else had already left. The tap of your nails as you opened up your messages was the only thing you could hear above the whistling wind. It was always cold around the coast at this time of year. 

You sent off a text to an... acquaintance. You weren’t sure you could call him a friend since you’d never really talked that much and his vibes had always seemed a little off to you but you were certain he was the only person you knew with a car and enough free time to drive you where you needed to be. So you tapped the send button and waited. You knew that he most likely wouldn’t reply straight away; you didn’t expect him to. But the cold was beginning to become a little overbearing and you tapped your foot as you stared at the screen. 

Unsure as to what more you could do, you decided to stand and make your way into a cafe so you could warm up and maybe have something to eat. You had only managed to scrounge up a tiny bowl of cereal before you’d left with the hopes that you could grab something from the cafe on the train but of course the train had never come. Your legs protested to being used again and you had to stand there and stretch your tired body before you could move to somewhere that was warmer than the shitty metal bench. As you started walking you messed about with your music, shuffling your playlist and letting your music drown out the wind once again. You found a cosy looking cafe a little ways from the station and pushed open the door with your shoulder, your hands full with your bags. A bell rang as the door slowly swung shut again and a girl, who had been sweeping behind the counter looked up and nodded at you as you sat down and arranged your bags beside your feet. 

This was a….less that perfect way to start your day but the cafe you had chosen was clean and heated and you felt yourself warming up little by little. You ordered some tea and the girl came back with a steaming mug and some biscuits around the side. It was on her, she said, you look hungry. You thanked her with a smile and explained your situation. She nodded, understanding and told you that you could stay as long as you needed. They had wifi. You wrapped your hands around your tea and watched outside the window as the pale morning light warmed into afternoon sunshine. Checking your phone, you frowned as you saw you still had no reply. You really weren’t sure what to do. 

“Is everything okay?” The sound of sweeping has stopped once again as the girl peered over at you with her thick rimmed glasses, her hands still wrapped around the broom she was holding but her focus entirely on you now. 

You set your phone down and sighed a deep, heavy sigh. “Not really” you reply, unsure as to why you’re talking to a stranger about all this but still comforted that she cared enough to ask. “I’m trying to get a ride but no ones answering my texts and it's starting to stress me out a little if I’m being honest”. You run your hand through your hair, a nervous habit of yours.

“God, that sounds rough” she comments and you nod. “Is it important? The place you need to get to?” You notice she’s back behind the counter, leaning against it to talk to you. 

“Yes. I was meant to move into my uni flat today but... You know” you gestured in the vague direction of the station “I’d prefer not to delay it any longer or I’d feel like I’m missing out”.

The girl nodded along with your words, a thoughtful look on her face. Her mouth twisted into a frown. “Well, I’ll make you an offer” she leant forward on folded arms “If none of your friends can get you a lift by the time I get off work then I’ll take you”.

You sat there, frozen but warmed by the offer. “Wow that’s very kind of you! What time do you get off?” You dreaded the answer. 

“Five” your heart dropped. “Where are you heading again?” 

You tell her where your uni is and she shudders. That’s a long ass drive, you’re sure she’s thinking. You tell her that she doesn’t have to do anything if she doesn’t want to, and that you’re sure your friends will help you. She shakes her head and insists that she’ll take you if no one else can.

The buzzing of your phone makes you jump and your heart leaps in your chest as you realise it was a text. You open it up and almost yell when you read the contents. “I just got bailed on” you moan into your hands. 

The girl hums and watches as you frantically scroll down your contacts list, sending out a few more messages but not really expecting much from them. The few friends you have that can drive are most likely busy with the start of school and you feel a little helpless as the girls offer seems more like a reality. 

“My offer’s still on the table”. 

“I might just have to take it” you mumble after a few beats of silence. “I’m sorry for putting you through this. I'd be there by now if my train had come”. 

“It’s okay” the girl rights herself, wiping down her hands on the apron tied over her torso. She smiles at you and you can’t help but smile back. “I’m Marsti by the way. Since we’re mostly likely gonna be hanging together for a while”. 

“Stelsa” you reply, slipping off your jacket as you realise you’d be in this cafe for a while. 

Marsti hummed as she fiddled with the cash register before bending down to fiddle with something below the counter you couldn’t see. You sipped at your tea, only lukewarm by now, and dipped a biscuit in it. You crunched and watched her move around the back of the cage. 

“Lunch rush is about to start” Marsti called over her shoulder. She was preparing the coffee machine. “Do you mind helping me with something? Since I’m giving you a ride later and everything”. 

“Yeah of course” you down the last of your tea and stand up to help. Hesitating as you get to the counter, you wait until Marsti beckons you forward and you slip behind. It feels weird. “Is this legal?”

Marsti shrugs “my boss never comes round these days unless it’s her shift” she explains as leads you to the back room. The smell of pastries fills your nose and your mouth waters. “Can you start putting these in the baskets on the counter?”

You set to work and Marsti awards you with a pastry of your pick and another tea. Then she shoos you back to your seat and smiles as a trickle of people start walking inside. With more people inside the small building, it started to warm up more and you rotated between talking to Marsti whenever the rush quietened down and scrolling on your phone. By now your anxiety had died down a little bit. You couldn’t help but feel bad about making Marsti drive you all the way to your uni, even if she offered. 

Taking this time to double check your emails, you make sure you know where your building is so that you don’t inconvenience your new friend any more than you already have. It’s in the middle of campus, close enough to the student shops that you’re sure you won’t get lost. You hope your flatmates haven’t ruined the shared kitchen when you get there- you knew it was always going to be hit or miss on who you got in your flat but you couldn’t stand mess. You hope you’ll be able to find some friends. The concept of going to an unfamiliar town and starting completely fresh was something about university that you weren’t looking forward to. Sure, you weren’t awful at making friends given that you did, in fact, have some. But the drastic change in going to university scared you, and you were sure there were many others that felt the same. 

You watched as the mid afternoon sun started to dip into the horizon and sighed, stretching out your legs. You’d done a whole lot of sitting today and not much else and you thought about where you’d be if your morning hadn’t been ruined. Probably talking to your flatmates, having just moved everything from your bags into your room. Maybe you’d be winding down for an early bedtime. The thought of sleeping in a soft warm bed makes your eyes sting with sleepiness and you take a long sip of your tea to wake yourself up a little. You glance down at your phone. It was almost time to get going. The thought made you equal parts excited and nervous. You itched to get moving again, having sat in this cafe for the majority of the day and wanted to stretch your legs a little bit more before getting into the car with Marsti. 

Evening light cast shadows over the tiny interior of the cafe as the streetlights finally turned on and Marsti went about preparing to lock the building. You let out a yawn and stood up to help her, figuring with the two of you making sure everything was secure, it’d get done a lot faster. Marsti thanked you and untied her apron, disappearing into one of the back rooms and coming back a few minutes later with a bag on her shoulders. You follow her out of the building, stopping outside to wait for her to lock up before going around to the back where her little red van was parked. She helped you haul your bags into the back as you slung yourself up to the front and buckled up. Marsti followed and started up the vehicle. By now the sun had vanished and the air had the chill of night. You knew that you wouldn’t arrive until well into the AM’s and hoped that you wouldn’t wake up any of your flatmates that had already moved in when trying to open the doors. 

The ride there was quiet. The two of you made casual chatter as you gazed out onto the empty roads. Every now and then you would tell Marsti how grateful you were that she was doing this and she would simply just shrug, joking that as payment you had to give her updates on how uni was going. You laughed and agreed, typing your number into her battered old phone and smiling as she asked you to put your contact name as Tea Girl. With google maps up on your phone, the two of you managed to find your way onto campus and you let out a breath of relief as you saw your building. The lights on most of the flats and kitchens were off and you assumed that pretty much everyone was asleep. You silently hoped that the rumbling engine of Marsti’s van wouldn’t wake anyone up as she helped you take your bags out and through the door. 

“Good luck, Stelsa” the girl waved at you as you shuffled through the door. 

“Thank you so much. For everything” you replied with a grin. You would be forever grateful. “Text me when you get back, yeah? It’s a long journey”.

“Of course” she gave a final wave as the door swung shut and you watched her step back into her van and drive off. 

You notice, with relief, that your flat is on the bottom floor. Your legs ache from sitting around all day and you’re glad that you don’t have to lug several bags up however many flights of stairs this building has. There’s a beam of light coming from somewhere a little off to the left inside your flat and as you open the door you notice that the kitchen light is on. You wonder if one of your flatmates accidentally left it on before going to bed and decide on making a quick detour before heading to your room. Using your arm to pull the handle down, you shoulder your way into the kitchen and are immediately met with a scruffy looking girl with a forkful of noodles in her mouth. You notice her cheeks redden a bit and you figure it’s from surprise or embarrassment as you make your formalities. You realise you don’t have your room key and she offers to take you to where you can get it once the place actually opens and you agree. 

She introduces herself as Tyzias as you’ve both sat down, you with some very sweet green tea, and her with what smells like shitty instant coffee that she downs at once almost immediately. You’d be more surprised if you hadn’t noticed the dark circles under her eyes. You secretly hope that you can force her to sleep after you’ve got your key. She looks like she needs it. There’s an empty box and a few cider bottles with the caps popped off scattered around the kitchen. One of them’s beside Tyzias and she takes a cautious sip and exclaims loudly that it’s flat and room temperature before pouring it down the sink and placing it beside the bins. You help her gather up the rest and toss the box into the recycling. 

“So your friend gave you a ride here? Do they go here too?” she asks you. You notice freckles dusting her cheeks and decide to look away before you study her face too much. You think they’re charming. 

“No she lives quite far from here it’s a miracle she could even help me get here” you explain as you feel the tiredness seep deep into your bones. “I met her today in a cafe I went to when my train didn’t show up”.

“Wait” Tyzias raises her eyebrows “so you met a stranger...who offered to give you a lift in their car” she pauses to sit up the last of her drink, grimacing as she gets to the grounds. “And you agreed?”

“That’s right”.

“You’re lucky you didn’t get murdered. That’s some crazy shit” she commented and you laughed and nodded cause yeah, you guess she’s right.

You ask her what she’s studying and she says law. You’re a little surprised by that but you’re not sure why. You tell her what you’re here for and she makes a noise of acknowledgment. The time ticks by relatively fast as you talk to this mysterious sleepy girl and you find yourself enjoying her company immensely. She’s witty and funny and the tired hilt of her voice, the way she seems to slur some of her letters together is charming in a way you can’t quite describe. She makes a joke and you laugh. You notice her face go a little red and yeah, you guess it is a little warm in here isn’t it? You take off your jacket and her eyes flash over your arms then back to your face and her cheeks grow a little darker. 

She’s part ways through her second mug of coffee by the time it's 7 and she tells you its safe to leave your bags in the kitchen while you’re both out. 

“They’re probably not gonna wake up for a few more hours” she says, glancing down the hallway as you follow her out the flat door. 

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping too then?” you decide to ask. 

Tyzias shrugs. “I had a nap when I got here” she says offhandedly. “And one on the way here” she adds after a moment. 

She leads you past the student shops and you remind yourself to visit them once you’re feeling more awake. You leave her outside the building as you grab your key, glad that you’re finally able to see your room and get some much needed shut-eye. As you're walking back you put the key on your keyring and Tyzias asks if you’re excited to get settled into the flat. You say you are and she smiles. 

“The others are pretty cool. I mean, so far” she says with a shrug. “My friend Tagora is in this flat too. The only cool thing about him is that he owns ferrets. Ask him about that and nothing else because he’s insufferable to talk to”. 

“Noted”. You can’t help your lips from quirking up as she talks about the other students in your flat. She seems to regard them fondly, even if she talks shit about her friend. 

The sound of the lock clicking open fills you with relief as you go to open the door to your room. Tyzias helps you move your bags in, huffing as she drags a particularly heavy one across the carpeted floor. You thank her and she just throws you a dorky smile and tells you that if you need her, she’ll be next door.

“I’ll see you later, yeah?” she asks, almost timidly. 

“Of course! I just want to settle in and have a nap. It’s been a long day” you watch as she turns to leave before piping up “maybe you should do the same?”

Her cheeks blanch and this time you’re not sure why. The corridor isn’t as well heated as the kitchen but she does have a hoodie on so maybe she’s just overheating. 

“Maybe I will” she mumbles as you shut the door. You wait until you hear the soft thump of her own door closing before you move to rummage through your bags. Sorting out your bed is your top priority. 

Your body aches with tiredness and when you finally fall into the soft embrace of your new bed, sleep finds you almost instantly. You needed this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhnggfn i made a liddol homestuck/hiveswap sideblog on tumblr if u wanna talk or ask me shit about this fic or like,, anything homestuck/hiveswap (or tyzias) related its @/tyziaslovemail ok bye


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy (late) valentine’s day :)!!

Sleep doesn’t come to you as easily as your neighbour but you still decide to lay in bed for a while and zone out on your phone. Your head feels numb and you chalk it up to sleep deprivation as you focus your eyes on your phone screen. Faint bumps can be heard from the room next to yours- Stelsa’s, you’ve come to find out. You figure she’s sorting out her stuff before she hits the hay for real. The sound of her bed frame squeaking is an indicator that she’s down for the count. You hope she sleeps well, it sounds like she’s had a rough day. 

As the sun rises slowly, casting shadows over your desk, you begin to hear the stirrings of your other flatmates. First, it was the sound of a door being unlocked down the hall and the shuffling of tired feet making their way over to the kitchen in search of food. You make a mental note to check out the shops later so you can cook some food that isn’t a king sized pot noodle. Later on, you hear voices talking and the clattering of someone cleaning dishes in the sink as the kitchen door opens and shuts again. You decide to stay where you are until you’re hungry enough to move, or someone knocks on your door. 

You don’t realise it, but at some point you start to drift off a little. Your vision had grown fuzzy as your eyes struggled to focus on your screen as you scrolled rapidly through your feed. You lazily send a meme to Tagora before your eyes close and don’t open again until a blindingly bright beam of sunlight hits your face and you groan. You’d forgotten to close your curtains. Your phone, which had been dropped on your chest when you had decided to pass out, read the time 13:30. Rolling out of bed, you listen out for movement in the room next to yours but hear nothing. You figure she’s probably still asleep and will be for a while so you stretch and slip on your sandals before heading into the kitchen with the intent of grabbing some more coffee. When you enter, you notice that someone had gone out and gotten a nicer brand coffee and put it near the kettle. You inspect it, assuming it’s free real estate otherwise it’d be shut in their room, and make yourself a mug before you can convince yourself otherwise. It tastes better than the stuff you brought with you for sure. You decide to put that near the kettle too, in case someone wants to steal it. 

Outside, you hear passing conversations as students walk by the open kitchen window. There’s a relaxed atmosphere in the air as everyone settles into the new environment. You see someone in their flat kitchen in the building opposite yours, a tiny silhouette of a figure dancing along to their music as they cook. You take another sip of your drink, running your empty mug under some water and placing it upside down to dry. Figuring now is as good a time as any to explore campus a bit more, you head out of your flat. A figure bumps into as you open the door to your building and you curse as the sudden weight makes you stagger. 

It’s Tagora. His face is twisted in anger and a little red. He’s holding what looks like a bag of groceries in one hand and a hot drink, most likely from one of the cafes nearby, in the other. And he looks pissed off. 

“Someone piss in your drink?” You ask as he too finds his footing. 

He scoffs at you. “You fucking wish! No. I went out to grab some stuff to eat” he lifts up the bag “and wanted to check out that little cafe we passed by yesterday but turns out the dude who works there is a complete asshole”. 

“Are you sure you didn’t just say something that offended him?” you ask cheekily, trying to suppress your grin as his face becomes even more red. He swings his bag at you and you dodge out of the way before it can make contact with you.

“Fuck off, Tyzias” his shoulders shudder as he swears at you. You notice his grip on his disposable cup is denting the cardboard slightly. He barges past you and you watch him stomp into the kitchen as the flat door swings shut. 

Daraya pokes her head out of her room and looks at you with raised eyebrows before jogging up to where you still stood, your hand propping the door outside open. 

“Hm. Don’t want to know what that was about” she commented as she caught up with you and gestured that you both walk outside to continue the conversation. “You going out exploring? Cause I need to grab a few things for my room if you’d like the company”.

You tell her sure, you’d like the company, and smile to yourself as she beams at you and motions for you to start heading towards the shops. The winding paths take you to a sunny clearing with a few benches scattered around on the grassy edge and shops lining the middle. There are stairs that go up to a second level where you assume the library and several cafes are scattered about as well as some of the buildings you’ll be going to when your classes finally start. Most of the buildings around the clearing are shops or places for students to do laundry, take out cash or print out work. There’s a coffee shop tucked away in the corner with a few students sitting inside, chatting and laughing with one another, and a bar you’re sure you’ll get dragged to at some point during the year. There’s a menu board outside the entrance and you glance over at it as you pass. 

Daraya tugs at your hoodie sleeve and leads you through the sliding doors of a shop. As soon as you step in you’re blasted with cold air as you walk under the AC. The floor is smooth and slippery as you walk over it in your shitty sandals and you regret not stopping to grab some shoes that had a bit more grip before going out on your adventure. Daraya stops at one of the refrigerated sections, eyes scanning the cold drinks. You stand next to her and grab an energy drink from the display at the top. She gives you a look but doesn’t comment on it. You half expected her to make fun of your choice of flavour- the fruity ones had always been your favourite.

“You literally have two whole sinks you can get water from in the flat” you say as she picks up a bottle of water and carries on shuffling down the aisle. 

“I know but this shit tastes better” she holds up the bottle as she talks to you over the shoulder of her band tee, “dunno if you’ve tried to uni tap water yet but it tastes like crap. Also, it’s like, constantly room temperature no matter how long you leave it running”. 

“We can get ice cube molds for the freezer” you offer with a shrug as you both turn into the next aisle. You stop her as you spot the instant coffee and she huffs as you scan through them. 

“Sure whatever” she taps her foot as you bend down to get a look at a tub of coffee on the bottom shelf. You take it and balance it in the hand with your drink. 

As you find yourself wandering back to the front of the shop, balancing several items clumsily in your arms, your mind thinks back to the girl you’d helped that morning. You wonder if she’d woken up yet. If she’d met anyone else. If anyone else had moved in while you were out or napping. You ask Daraya the latter and she says no. Okay, good to know that you’re not gonna get yourself into any more awkward conversations today. 

By the time you enter your flat, hands filled with plastic bags that bit into your fingers from the weight of all the frozen goods and horribly cheap noodles you’d bought, people seemed to be up and about. You walked into the kitchen and saw Tagora stirring pasta at the stove. He still seemed a little pissed off from his encounter earlier but you greeted him the same way you did every time- with a friendly insult, this time about his pasta, and you saw his lips quirk up a little. 

“I heard you met the new girl” he commented as you piled up your things in the back of the freezer. You took out your drink and shoved it in there too, making a mental note to grab it in a bit so it didn’t turn into an ice cube. “You helped get her keys?”

Your cheeks turn a little red at that and you think the only way he’d known about it is she’d told him everything. “Uh, yeah that’s right. Said her train never came or something like that”. You hid your face in the freezer so he couldn’t see you panicking. 

“Pretty isn’t she?” okay fuck he’d caught on fast. 

“I guess so” you shrug nonchalantly, clearing your throat a little so your voice wouldn’t shake as you added on “didn’t think she was really your type though, Gorgor”. 

“Like you’d know what my type is” he checked his phone before grabbing a sieve to drain his pasta. There was some fancy looking sauce on the side. You wonder when he bought that. 

“Um...” you shut the freezer door and tap your lip with your finger, pretending that you’re thinking over the answer. “Mean men who work at coffee shops?” you ask innocently. 

Tagora almost spills the boiling water over his hand but manages to direct it into the sink instead. You watch as little pieces of pasta fall along with it and wonder if he’s rancid enough to eat them. You’d eat sink pasta. You have. 

“Don’t you have anyone else to annoy?” he asks with a growl to his voice that matched his grimace. You watch for a few seconds as he mixes in his pasta sauce. 

“Not really” you decide to sit next to him as he makes himself comfortable on one of the shitty plastic chairs scattered around the kitchen. He shoots a glare at you but says nothing and you know that no matter how much he says he hates you he secretly enjoys your company. 

You ask why he’s not eating in his room and he chews on his mouthful before speaking to you. He tells you that he prefers to make it a habit of eating somewhere that isn’t his room in the hopes that it’ll stop him from hoarding dishes in there. That makes sense, you think, imagining visiting Tagora in his room and almost passing out from the rancid smell of week old pasta bowls piled on top of his desk. That’d be a bad first impression if he ever had a guy over you comment with a sly grin. He threatens to throw his fork at you. 

By the time you see your newest flat mate emerge from her room, hair ruffled up but eyes bright from a well needed sleep, it’s mid afternoon and you’re lounging in the kitchen with Tagora with your laptop plugged into the only socket in the room while he checks his emails for the millionth time. You both look up as the door opens and Stelsa yawns as she shuffles over to the kettle wearing crocs in the brightest shade of pink you have ever seen in your life and matching joggers. Your heart does backflips and you quickly turn back to sorting through your Spotify playlists before anyone notices you staring at her a little too long. 

It’s Tagora who first looks up and greets her with a formal hello. You watch her dimples appear as she smiles at him before going back to messing with the kettle. 

“Good nap?” You finally force yourself to blurt out so you don’t seem rude.

“Yes thanks” she seems to perk up at the question and she runs a hand through her short hair to pat down the few tufts sticking up as she goes on “I really needed it” a chuckle that has your heart beating faster “I fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow”.

“Stress does that to you” you reply jokingly but with a hint of sincerity. You’d know, after all. 

You watch as Tagora refreshes his emails and a notification pops up. He clicks on it and scans the paragraphs before turning to you. He looks relieved as he talks “finally got an email about inductions and freshers week. We have a law talk at 12 tomorrow” he stops to scan further “and a campus tour on Wednesday at 10. It’s optional but I know your dumbass is gonna get lost trying to find the law buildings so you should probably go”. 

“First of all, rude” Stelsa sits with you at the table now, steaming mug of tea in one hand and a bowl of cereal in the other. You’re not sure where it came from. Also it’s almost evening but you’re not judging. “And secondly, I’ll go on the tour if you do cause if not I’m gonna assume you know where shit is and I’m just gonna leech off that”. 

“Fine, whatever” he waves his hand in dismissal and you feel like you’ve won. 

-

The rest of the day goes on without much happening. The air around the flat is chill and everyone seems to be in a good mood, save for Tagora who still looks a bit irritated from his encounter earlier. You sit next to him, still on your laptop and mess around well into the night. The night air smells damp and comes through the open kitchen window in faint gusts that moves your hair into your eyes and soon you hear the quiet pattering of rain hitting them. The constant noise makes your eyes feel heavy and you tell Tagora you’re heading off to bed and he looks almost relieved as you put your laptop under your arm and leave the kitchen. He calls to you to meet him here before your talk. You say a sleepy okay as the door shuts and you struggle to unlock your door.

Your body feels sluggish as you peel off your hoodie and replace it with a fresh oversized jumper and some shorts. You slip off your socks and kick them onto the floor once you’re in bed wrapped up in the sheets. Before you pass out you plug in your phone and set an alarm. Then you close your eyes. 

The alarm is as jarring as it has always been and it wakes you up with a jolt of anxiety. You’re pretty sure Stelsa can hear it from the thin walls that separates your rooms and you quickly turn it off before it wakes up anyone else and lay there on your pillow as you wait for your ears to stop ringing. The time reads 10:30 and you sigh as you rub the sleep from your eyes and sit up. You have to meet Tagora in the kitchen at 11:30 so you can find your way over to the talk but you still manage to find time to procrastinate by scrolling on your phone until you see the clock hit 11:00. 

You quickly gather up some clothes, your typical funky button up- this one looks like a bowling alley carpet, your dickies and a jacket in case it’s still wet outside from last night's rain. After you gather up your clothes in your arms, you walk over to your shower. Yesterday you’d found out that the en suite bathrooms did in fact have showers but you haven’t tried to use it yet. It’s a tiny cubicle in the corner of your bathroom with a little shelf to store your 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner as well as your shower gel. 

You fiddle with the settings a bit, testing the water with your hand before you decide to get in. You find out quickly that the water can get boiling hot with the slightest of adjustments and settle on keeping it halfway so you don’t scald yourself. Once in, the warm water hits your tired body and you feel slightly more awake than you did a few minutes prior. You stand there for a couple of minutes just letting the water in off your body in a tired haze before you snap out of it and start slathering shampoo into your hair. You use your fingers to twist out the knots in your hair as you run your hands through it. Once you’re out you towel dry your hair and hope it dries by the time you’re out of the flat. 

Stepping out of your room feeling the freshest you’ve been in several days, you spot Tagora pacing in the kitchen. He spots your movement from the corner of his eye and stops to watch you enter. Lanques there too, cooking something you can’t quite make out but it smells good and your stomach complains as you both leave. You ask if you can stop by somewhere to grab something to eat but he seems paranoid that you’ll miss the talk if you go off route so you huff and follow him past the student shops and up a steep flight of concrete stairs. The path leads you towards a large building, just as tall and intimidating as the others scattered around campus, and just as grey and boring. He makes you stop to check one of the campus maps nailed to the side of a building with a sign that reads ‘Post Office’ in large red lettering and you make a mental note on its whereabouts in case you feel like impulsively buying stuff with your month free trial of amazon prime. 

Tagora mumbles to himself as he tries to find where the law buildings are using the key on the side of the map. You tap your foot and watch as students pass by, wondering if you could spot anyone who looked like they were doing law. Next, you check the time, you’ve still got plenty to actually get there, you’re a fast walker either way but you know Tagora will lag behind and whine if you both don't hurry up and find where you’re going. He makes a noise of confusion and you sigh and shoulder him out of the way to look at the map. 

“Look” you explain, pointing to what he was taking so long to find in the key “Number 23 is the place we’re looking for” you scan the map and spot the building with the number you’re looking for next to it and point to the next. “Seems like it’s a five minute walk tops”. 

He thanks you quietly, not wanting to admit defeat and starts walking in the direction of the building. You quickly catch up to him in a few strides and you both walk in silence until you get to your destination. He struggles to push open the glass door, and you offer a helping hand but he just narrows his eyes at you and uses his shoulder to push it open so the two of you can enter. Inside is plain navy carpeting, surprisingly intact with only a few questionable stains. The carpet fades off into flooring and you ascend a long staircase to get to the second floor where you’re met with a corridor. There are doors along the corridor with room numbers and plaques and you peek inside one of the windows to find a lecture hall. The plaque on the door reads Auditorium and there are a group of students already crowded around so you assume you’ve found the right place. 

You wiggle the handle to the door and notice that you need your student card to open it. No one else seems to be moving into the room and you decide to wait it out with Tagora in the corner of the corridor, away from the group of students. The sheer number of people that have begun to slowly fill the corridor overwhelms you a little and Tagora gives you a little smile when he notices your discomfort. You brush shoulders, as if to ground you and you silently thank him as you try to still your beating heart before anxiety eats you up. You’re here for a reason. You wanted this. 

The wait is cut short by a man in a smart suit arriving at the top of the stairs and swiping his card down the reader to open the doors.You see the students start to pile into the auditorium and follow a little ways behind. Inside, there’s a raised platform for the lecturer to stand as well as a desk and a large projector. The seating is also raised and you see students bound up the stairs in the hopes to get the top seats. You shuffle over and sit on the bottom row with Tagora. 

-

The talk goes about how you’d expected it to. You yawned as you stood back up and stretched your legs. Tagora did the same, slipping his phone out of the pocket of his pinstriped trousers and tapping in his password. You glance over as you both rise to exit the room- the first to leave being in the bottom seats. It has its perks for sure. You glance up at everyone chattering to themselves in the higher rows as you leave. No one really catches your eyes and you quickly turn around to catch up with Tagora before he leaves you, too preoccupied in texting to realise you’ve stayed from him. 

When you’re finally outside, a gust of wind that hadn’t been there before blows your hair into your eyes and makes you shiver. Your hands clench into fists inside your jacket pockets to keep at least some warmth circulating through them. 

Instead of heading back to your flat, you decide to scope out the library, somewhere you knew you’d be spending long nights studying in. You say a quick goodbye to Tagora, who waves at you from behind his shoulder as he descends the steps to get back into the main square. The library was a big rectangular building made of the same stuff everything else was. It has big glass windows that spanned from ceiling to floor as well several glass doors that slid open when you held your student card to the scanner. You had to use your ID again to get into the main part of the library but after that you were met with a large room filled with rows or computers and desks and some doors going off the far end. Some students were already sitting at the computers, the sound of mice clicking and the faint tapping of keyboards was hardly anything new to you. No one looked up as you passed them. You were headed to the door on the farthest side of the room as once you opened it you got what you were looking for. 

It was a typical library setting, with rows and rows and rows of bookshelves that you found yourself navigating like a maze. There were more tall windows in this room, each casting a beam of light that hued the books yellow. You kept walking, eyes scanning the books in the hopes of finding an interesting read. There was a poster stuck to many of the shelves, what looked like a key to find specific course-related books. You made sure to know where the law ones were for when your course started. But for now, you wanted to relax. You find a desk tucked away in the corner of the room beside a particularly tall bookshelf filled with history books throughout the ages. You sit down in the armchair that had been pulled up to the little wooden desk and let yourself sink into the soft cushions. For a moment, you feel like you’re about to fall asleep but you quickly snap awake and begin scanning the books next to you. Nothing really stands out to you so you turn back towards the desk and try to connect to the library wifi to do some scrolling. 

Navigating the uni wifi was a challenge you had faced before but it was just as gruelling a second time. You weren’t even sure why the library had different wifi but maybe it had something to do with security. Whatever it was you managed to find the password and type it in. The wifi bar on your phone popped up and you smiled to yourself as you began your rounds of checking your social media. A text popped up from Tagora, saying that someone else had moved into the flat but hadn’t shown themself yet. He said the only reason he knew was because of some dishes that weren’t there before and the faint smell of weed he got when first walking into the flat. Your lips tilt down a little at that. You hope this person wasn’t in any of the rooms near you. You’re not even allowed to smoke in the building. 

You decide to talk to him about it later and close the messages. You settle yourself once again in the chair, repositioning the pillow so it was propped up against your back for maximum comfort. You sigh your typical, tired sigh and you feel your eyes unfocus as you stare out the window. You can see that the wind has picked up a little, the trees outside blowing against it and leaves being pulled off branches and falling to the ground. Inside the library is warm and there’s a heater next to your desk which you can feel has been turned on by the need to take off your jacket. You sling it over the back of your chair and bask in the cosiness of it all. You wish you could stay like this forever and you know for sure that you will be coming back to this spot a lot in the future. But for now you tuck your legs underneath yourself and position your body as if you’re almost laying in the chair. 

You almost doze off before a loud thump followed by a ‘fuck!’ that made your eyes snap open, sleepiness gone. Sitting up, you lean forward and peek from behind the bookshelf. It's Stelsa and she’s on the floor, frantically trying to pick up the mound of books you assume she’d been trying to carry by herself. Before your brain can even process what you’re doing, you stand up and stride over to her. 

“Need any help?” you ask and you notice your sudden appearance makes her jump a little. When she sees who’s talking to her though, her frown quickly vanishes. She beams up at you from where she’s crouched down on the floor. 

“Yes please”. 

You kneel down to help her and notice that these must be the course assigned books that she needs. That’s a lot, you think. 

“That’s a lot,” you say, dumbly. The pile has grown steadily bigger. You’re not sure she’ll be able to carry them all by herself. 

“I know I just don’t want the hassle of having to look for them during term, y’know” she shrugs and begins to position her hands in a way that can carry all the books. 

“I guess that’s one way to do it” you agree. “Do you need any help gettin these bad boys back to your room? That’s a lot of books for only one person to carry”. You figure you’d offer seeing as you didn’t want her to injure herself trying to get them all back. You’d feel bad if you just left her to her own devices. 

“If you’re not busy..” she trails off and it sounds more like a question than an answer. She glances back to where you’d come from and then back at you. You smile at her.

“Wasn’t busy at all” you begin picking up the books, this time in smaller piles. She does the same. You hold the door for her as you leave the library. 

You were right in your observation that the wind had picked up considerably, and you realise with a heavy heart that you’d left your jacket on your chair. You decide to go back after helping her to grab it and figure you could get some work done on your laptop as well. You still have some course stuff to get through before uni properly starts and you’d been putting it off. You place a hand on top of your book pile in case it decided to blow over and carefully make your way back to the flat. Once you’re inside Stelsa thanks you profusely and you can only give her a nod and a smile and hope that your cheeks aren’t too red by the time she leaves you to go back to her own room.

You make a quick detour to your room to grab your laptop before heading back outside to brave the wind. Your laptop bag feels heavy on your shoulder and it swings around as you walk but as the familiar full ache returns to your shoulders you shrug it off. Stopping off at a little cafe, you order a coffee and the man at the counter looks your tired ass up and down before handing you your drink. You say nothing but a polite thank you before leaving. The library is just as vacant as it had been before your distraction and you find the seat you’d been as fairly quickly. Your jacket had fallen off the back and was now a little bundle of fabric squished beside the pillows. You slip it back on before setting your laptop down and connecting to the wifi. Taking a swig of coffee, you get to work.


End file.
